ad Estursete, et jacet in ipso hundredo.” If this means the spot now called Bircholt, which it seems necessary to suppose, the designation, “St. Martin,” is presumptive evidence of the existence of a church there at the period of the survey, though none is specified. However, while standing within the boundary of Bircholt hundred, the church might be that of the parish of Aldington, which is dedicated to St. Martin. See note (3) of the preface.—Bircholt church was in being A.D. 1518, but in 1578 the return made at the Visitation was, that no church was then standing (Hasted), (and but two dwellings in the parish; Harris), though part of the walls remained in Hasted's time. It was a rectory. The rector of Bircholt, glebe, tithes, and oblations are mentioned, though not the church, in (Val. Eccl.), compiled not very long before the church was declared to be then demolished. “Bircholt, R. (ch. in ruins)” still appears in the (Clergy List.)
32. Birling.—Brass: Water Mylys, 1522. This church was granted to the monks of Bermondsey in Surrey, temp. K. Henry II. (Reg. Roff.)
33. Blackmanstone.—This place is an instance of the reverse of the usual practice, namely, of a name derived from the proprietor of the place, it being expressly declared in (D. B.), that “Blacheman held it in the time of King Edward,” the Confessor. The church is stated to have been destroyed in 1530. However, the parson of Blackmanstone is mentioned in (Val. Eccl.), though the church itself is not named, consequently it is not stated to have been in ruins when that survey was taken, 26th of K. Henry VIII (A.D. 1535), as Hasted asserts. The name is still retained as a rectory, with a population of ten.
34. Bogelei.—This manor is pronounced by Hasted to be that which is now known as Bewley, in the parish of Boughton Malherb; and, the place being described with others unquestionably in that vicinity, I see no reason to doubt the correctness of Hasted’s opinion; though we shall then, apparently, have two Domesday churches in Boughton Malherb, beside a third, at Merlea, hereafter mentioned, in another part of this same manor of Bogelei. How far, and in what direction, the manor might extend I know not, but clearly it was of considerable size; and if we are unwilling to suppose the church to have stood near the mansion, wherever that might be, though no record nor vestige thereof should now remain, possibly it may have been the type of the church of some neighbouring parish, for Adam, the
